Tissue Biotype and Its Relation to the Underlying Bone Morphology

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142069/1/jper0569.pd

The Significance of the Lingual Nerve During Periodontal/Implant Surgery

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141105/1/jper0372.pd

Opportunistic bacteria confer the ability to ferment prebiotic starch in the adult cystic fibrosis gut

Chronic disruption of the intestinal microbiota in adult cystic fibrosis (CF) patients is associated with local and systemic inflammation, and has been linked to the risk of serious comorbidities. Supplementation with high amylose maize starch (HAMS) might provide clinical benefit by promoting commensal bacteria and the biosynthesis of immunomodulatory metabolites. However, whether the disrupted CF gut microbiota has the capacity to utilise these substrates is not known. We combined metagenomic sequencing, in vitro fermentation, amplicon sequencing, and metabolomics to define the characteristics of the faecal microbiota in adult CF patients and assess HAMS fermentation capacity. Compared to healthy controls, the faecal metagenome of adult CF patients had reduced bacterial diversity and prevalence of commensal fermentative clades. In vitro fermentation models seeded with CF faecal slurries exhibited reduced acetate levels compared to healthy control reactions, but comparable levels of butyrate and propionate. While the commensal genus Faecalibacterium was strongly associated with short chain fatty acid (SCFA) production by healthy microbiota, it was displaced in this role by Clostridium sensu stricto 1 in the microbiota of CF patients. A subset of CF reactions exhibited enterococcal overgrowth, resulting in lactate accumulation and reduced SCFA biosynthesis. The addition of healthy microbiota to CF faecal slurries failed to displace predominant CF taxa, or substantially influence metabolite biosynthesis. Despite significant microbiota disruption, the adult CF gut microbiota retains the capacity to exploit HAMS. Our findings highlight the potential for taxa associated with the altered CF gut microbiotato mediate prebiotic effects in microbial systems subject to ongoing perturbation, irrespective of the depletion of common commensal clades

Radion and Holographic Brane Gravity

The low energy effective theory for the Randall-Sundrum two brane system is investigated with an emphasis on the role of the non-linear radion in the brane world. The equations of motion in the bulk is solved using a low energy expansion method. This allows us, through the junction conditions, to deduce the effective equations of motion for the gravity on the brane. It is shown that the gravity on the brane world is described by a quasi-scalar-tensor theory with a specific coupling function omega(Psi) = 3 Psi / 2(1-Psi) on the positive tension brane and omega(Phi) = -3 Phi / 2(1+Phi) on the negative tension brane, where Psi and Phi are non-linear realizations of the radion on the positive and negative tension branes, respectively. In contrast to the usual scalar-tensor gravity, the quasi-scalar-tensor gravity couples with two kinds of matter, namely, the matters on both positive and negative tension branes, with different effective gravitational coupling constants. In particular, the radion disguised as the scalar fields Psi and Phi couples with the sum of the traces of the energy momentum tensor on both branes. In the course of the derivation, it has been revealed that the radion plays an essential role to convert the non-local Einstein gravity with the generalized dark radiation to the local quasi-scalar-tensor gravity. For completeness, we also derive the effective action for our theory by substituting the bulk solution into the original action. It is also shown that the quasi-scalar-tensor gravity works as holograms at the low energy in the sense that the bulk geometry can be reconstructed from the solution of the quasi-scalar-tensor gravity.Comment: Revtex4, 18 pages, revised version, conclusions unchanged, references adde

On Brane World Cosmological Perturbations

We discuss the scalar cosmological perturbations in a 3-brane world with a 5D bulk. We first show explicitly how the effective perturbed Einstein's equations on the brane (involving the Weyl fluid) are encoded into Mukohyama's master equation. We give the relation between Mukohyama's master variable and the perturbations of the Weyl fluid, we also discuss the relation between the former and the perturbations of matter and induced metric on the brane. We show that one can obtain a boundary condition on the brane for the master equation solely expressible in term of the master variable, in the case of a perfect fluid with adiabatic perturbations on a Randall-Sundrum (RS) or Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati (DGP) brane. This provides an easy way to solve numerically for the evolution of the perturbations as well as should shed light on the various approximations done in the literature to deal with the Weyl degrees of freedom.Comment: 36 pages, 1 figur

Impact of long-term erythromycin therapy on the oropharyngeal microbiome and resistance gene reservoir in non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis

Published 18 April 2018Long-term macrolide therapy reduces rates of pulmonary exacerbation in bronchiectasis. However, little is known about the potential for macrolide therapy to alter the composition and function of the oropharyngeal commensal microbiota or to increase the carriage of transmissible antimicrobial resistance. We assessed the effect of long-term erythromycin on oropharyngeal microbiota composition and the carriage of transmissible macrolide resistance genes in 84 adults with bronchiectasis, enrolled in the Bronchiectasis and Low-dose Erythromycin Study (BLESS) 48-week placebo-controlled trial of twice-daily erythromycin ethylsuccinate (400 mg). Oropharyngeal microbiota composition and macrolide resistance gene carriage were determined by 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and quantitative PCR, respectively. Long-term erythromycin treatment was associated with a significant increase in the relative abundance of oropharyngeal Haemophilus parainfluenzae (P = 0.041) and with significant decreases in the relative abundances of Streptococcus pseudopneumoniae (P = 0.024) and Actinomyces odontolyticus (P = 0.027). Validation of the sequencing results by quantitative PCR confirmed a significant decrease in the abundance of Actinomyces spp. (P = 0.046). Erythromycin treatment did not result in a significant increase in the number of subjects who carried erm(A), erm(B), erm(C), erm(F), mef(A/E), and msrA macrolide resistance genes. However, the abundance of erm(B) and mef(A/E) gene copies within carriers who had received erythromycin increased significantly (P < 0.05). Our findings indicate that changes in oropharyngeal microbiota composition resulting from long-term erythromycin treatment are modest and are limited to a discrete group of taxa. Associated increases in levels of transmissible antibiotic resistance genes within the oropharyngeal microbiota highlight the potential for this microbial system to act as a reservoir for resistance.IMPORTANCE Recent demonstrations that long-term macrolide therapy can prevent exacerbations in chronic airways diseases have led to a dramatic increase in their use. However, little is known about the wider, potentially adverse impacts of these treatments. Substantial disruption of the upper airway commensal microbiota might reduce its contribution to host defense and local immune regulation, while increases in macrolide resistance carriage would represent a serious public health concern. Using samples from a randomized controlled trial, we show that low-dose erythromycin given over 48 weeks influences the composition of the oropharyngeal commensal microbiota. We report that macrolide therapy is associated with significant changes in the relative abundances of members of the Actinomyces genus and with significant increases in the carriage of transmissible macrolide resistance. Determining the clinical significance of these changes, relative to treatment benefit, now represents a research priority.Jocelyn M. Choo, Guy C. J. Abell, Rachel Thomson, Lucy Morgan, Grant Waterer, David L. Gordon, Steven L. Taylor, Lex E. X. Leong, Steve L. Wesselingh, Lucy D. Burr, Geraint B. Roger

Neutron cross-sections for advanced nuclear systems : The n-TOF project at CERN

© Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2014 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedThe study of neutron-induced reactions is of high relevance in a wide variety of fields, ranging from stellar nucleosynthesis and fundamental nuclear physics to applications of nuclear technology. In nuclear energy, high accuracy neutron data are needed for the development of Generation IV fast reactors and accelerator driven systems, these last aimed specifically at nuclear waste incineration, as well as for research on innovative fuel cycles. In this context, a high luminosity Neutron Time Of Flight facility, n-TOF, is operating at CERN since more than a decade, with the aim of providing new, high accuracy and high resolution neutron cross-sections. Thanks to the features of the neutron beam, a rich experimental program relevant to nuclear technology has been carried out so far. The program will be further expanded in the near future, thanks in particular to a new high-flux experimental area, now under construction.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

238U(n, γ) reaction cross section measurement with C 6D6 detectors at the n-TOF CERN facility

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedThe radiative capture cross section of 238U is very important for the developing of new reactor technologies and the safety of existing ones. Here the preliminary results of the 238U(n,γ) cross section measurement performed at n-TOF with C6D6 scintillation detectors are presented, paying particular attention to data reduction and background subtraction.Peer reviewe

High accuracy 234U(n,f) cross section in the resonance energy region

New results are presented of the 234U neutron-induced fission cross section, obtained with high accuracy in the resonance region by means of two methods using the 235U(n,f) as reference. The recent evaluation of the 235U(n,f) obtained with SAMMY by L. C. Leal et al. (these Proceedings), based on previous n-TOF data [1], has been used to calculate the 234U(n,f) cross section through the 234U/235U ratio, being here compared with the results obtained by using the n-TOF neutron flux

The nucleosynthesis of heavy elements in Stars : The key isotope 25Mg

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedWe have measured the radiative neutron-capture cross section and the total neutron-induced cross section of one of the most important isotopes for the s process, the 25Mg. The measurements have been carried out at the neutron time-of-flight facilities n-TOF at CERN (Switzerland) and GELINA installed at the EC-JRC-IRMM (Belgium). The cross sections as a function of neutron energy have been measured up to approximately 300 keV, covering the energy region of interest to the s process. The data analysis is ongoing and preliminary results show the potential relevance for the s process.Peer reviewe